POLICE GET MORE, BOARD GETS LESS
After boosting VPD budget by millions, council cuts civilian oversight's funding
After boosting Vancouver's police budget by tens of millions of dollars over the past two years, the city's ruling party recently cut the money spent on civilian oversight of the department.
In December, Vancouver council slashed two-thirds of the proposed budget for the Vancouver police board, the independent governance body for the Vancouver Police Department.
The decision received no public attention at the time — even some city councillors said this week they did not realize it had happened.
The mayor's office says the reduction was a necessary response to “very dramatic” increases in board spending.
But a former Vancouver police board member says the organization was already under-resourced, and slashing its budget by two-thirds goes “far beyond political interference” and “seems to be an intentional kneecapping of the board.”
“Frankly, it's shocking. This is something that people should be up in arms about,” said Vancouver lawyer Rachel Roy, who served on the board from 2020 until her resignation in June.
B.C.'S Police Act requires every municipal police department to have a board consisting of the mayor, who acts as chair, up to seven directors appointed by the province, and one director appointed by council. These boards serve as the employers of police department staff, handle certain complaints about police, make budget decisions, and set direction and policy.
In 2018, for instance, the Vancouver police board commissioned a third-party review of the department's use of so-called street checks in response to complaints about racial bias. VPD adopted a new policy in 2020.
Every year, the Vancouver Police Department submits a proposed budget to the board, which then approves a provisional budget and sends it to council for final decision.
In November, the board approved a provisional VPD budget that included $908,000 for board operations, which the VPD said was needed to handle the growing complexity of the board's work.
At council the following month, ABC Coun. Brian Montague, who was a VPD officer for 28 years before entering civic politics, proposed boosting VPD funding in a few areas by a total of $2.1 million, but reducing the requested police board budget to $297,000 — a 66 per cent cut from the amount requested.
Montague's amendment passed, supported by Mayor Ken Sim and fellow ABC members. The non-abc councillors voted against Montague's amendment, but made no mention of the board at the time, only expressing discomfort with the on-the-fly $2.1-million increase for other VPD areas.
The three non-abc councillors — Greens Adriane Carr and
Pete Fry and Onecity's Christine Boyle — told Postmedia this week they did not realize then that council had effectively slashed the board's budget.
Reached this week, Montague said he had concerns with the board's actual spending, which grew from $278,000 in 2020 to $779,971 in 2023.
“Based on previous budgets and due to a lack of clear rationale behind this significant boost, I felt that the full increase was too much,” Montague said by email. “Through critical assessment, I suggest the 2022 budget of $297,000 would be an appropriate reset.”
Trevor Ford, Sim's chief of staff, said the board spent significantly over its budget in recent years.
“We have concerns if there's not proper accounting towards taxpayer dollars,” Ford said. “We respect the independence of the police board . ... But we also expect them to be responsible with public funds.”
The case raises questions around the roles and powers of police boards and city councils: If council cuts the board's budget, can the board reallocate money from the VPD'S $411-million total budget to cover its needs? The city believes not.
“It is not open for the police board to simply ignore an express decision of council on funding and reallocate amounts from other areas of the budget to reinstate the funding levels for board operations that were rejected by council,” Vancouver city manager Paul Mochrie said in an internal email, adding the board had the option of applying to B.C.'S director of police services to override council.
Roy, the lawyer and former board director, disagrees with Mochrie's interpretation of the Police Act.
“Council does not get to make that decision,” Roy said. “They don't get to pick line items in the police board budget.”
New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone, who chairs his city's police board, agrees.
“It's up to the police board to determine what they need to spend and how they need to spend it in order to provide appropriate policing,” and that includes the board's oversight operations, Johnstone said.
B.C.'S Ministry of Public Safety would not say which interpretation of the legislation is correct, only saying it urges councils and police boards to work together.
But it did say a city council or police board can apply to the province for a final determination on a budget dispute.
Police board vice-chair Frank Chong said this week the board submitted an amended provisional budget to the city in February. The board and city hall now expect “to finalize a budget of $690,000 for board administration,” Chong said.
The city confirmed those talks are in progress.
The budget goes toward board staff salaries, consultant and legal services, training, and stipends for the volunteer board members, among other things, Chong wrote.